The Lesson Plan
by Dark-Eyed-Junco
Summary: Vader has settled into life as a Sith apprentice and is enjoying his new freedom to rage and do as he pleases. But he forgot that a student is, at the end of the day, still a student, and not even a Sith apprentice can kill Jedi and terrorize Imperial officers all the time. There are traditional lessons as well. (Alternate title: "It Must Have Happened.")
1. Many Books

To be the apprentice of the Sith Master took adjustment. But the newly ordained Darth Vader, Lord of the Sith, had found his new role and its accompanying abilities coming to him more easily as he put time between himself and his former life. He lived firmly in the present and threw his attention wholly into the labors of building and securing the fledgling Galactic Empire. Distraction wasn't hard to come by. As a Jedi he'd been expected to constantly reflect on his passions and subdue them through study and meditation. Now he could allow his emotions to fill him to the brim and run over like a flood, drowning all reservations and thoughts of the past.

And no thought was forbidden now; no response too unseemly. To the Sith, anger and hate were pure and natural. Resisting something so natural had always left him weak and frustrated as a Jedi learner, and his instructors were tempted to give in to their base feelings as well in their futile efforts to contain him. Now he drew powerful, rejuvenating energies from this endless wellspring. As Sith, he denied himself no passion and no longer resisted the intrusive thoughts he'd once concealed with shame. Now he couldn't imagine going back to the old, stunted, ascetic philosophies and practices of the Jedi Order.

The more he embraced it, the less Anakin occupied his thoughts; the less _she_ did as well.

After completing an intensive and exhaustive round of training with the Inquisitorius, Palpatine summoned him to leave for Coruscant. The Emperor wanted to meet with him, now that he had a stretch of time not filled by the demands of the Empire or the needs of his own students. (Though they weren't Sith, it was still necessary to convert them to the Dark Side of the Force to help cleanse the Empire of the last Jedi remnants.

Upon being summoned, Vader left for Coruscant immediately. With the Jedi Order now dead to him, literally as well as spiritually, and his beloved now gone as well, Palpatine was the only individual to whom he now pledged fervent loyalty. And not just loyalty but indebtedness as well. Palpatine had recreated him, the good and the bad he now called his life; but despite his broken physical condition, he still owed his new master his life. Not even his violent fight for life on Mustafar would have mattered if his master hadn't pulled the wreckage of his body and mind from the smoldering grave he'd been condemned to.

A small part of him _was_ irked that the message wasn't sent earlier to give him time to prepare. But the apprentice always answered when called upon. It was the nature of the relationship; especially with Palpatine as the master. And it was in the apprentice's own benefit to do so.

While aboard his shuttle, Vader considered what Palpatine wanted to speak about. He doubted he was being summoned for a commendation. Neither could he envision a rebuke waiting for him. He'd done everything the Emperor and the Empire required of him.

It had to concern some task or mission. Most likely, a new pocket of Jedi padawans, or a stray Jedi Master, had turned up and needed to be terminated. Or maybe a few of the more uppity Imperial officers required a persuasive neck massage to get them back in line. He'd been wanting to grab a few of them and give them a good squeeze around the throat for a while. A few needed a minute or two of it.

The Emperor met him personally on his arrival, which Vader found unusual. After walking the ramp from of his shuttle, Vader knelt in front of the Emperor, who was flanked by his Royal Guards, before he took another step. He'd never seen the Emperor wait on a landing platform for anyone before, and his curiosity was building.

The Emperor said, "Rise, my friend," and Vader did. Now Palpatine stood dwarfed by him. Vader always had to incline his head to stay deferential and unimposing during these times.

He'd sensed before that the Royal Guards didn't trust him; this time they regarded him warily, though these days with somewhat less suspicion that he could feel through the Force. He knew they still found him needlessly threatening; someone who might knock over the Emperor if he got to close, or go into a fit of rage at any moment. But when they were dismissed by the Emperor, they left without hesitation.

"Follow me, apprentice," Palpatine said. Vader trailed him obediently into the palace, turning eventually through a seldom used corridor which lacked the customary extent of elegant decor. Eventually they entered a wing he didn't recognize at all, and descended traditional stone steps; marbled, the red veins were almost black.

Vader's knees ached as they walked and he fought down an anxious vertigo that instinctively rose in him. The old-fashioned design of the Imperial Palace was one reason he usually had to be summoned there. Every step had to be executed carefully and his knee joints ground bone and flesh against his prosthetics. Yet this was worse than the usual homage to tradition: the stairs continued on past the few charmingly antique steps. What could be down here not worth a lift ride?

At the bottom of the stairs, Palpatine led him through an antechamber, and into a large room, sparingly furnished in a sharply angular style. The answer to his question: shelves of books. Many were leather-bound tomes, while some more contemporarily stored data. A few display cases in the center of the room held scrolls, paper fragments, or Sith holocrons.

Palpatine said nothing, but went to inspect one of the cases, and laid a feeble-looking hand on the transparent casing. He didn't glance at Vader as he pondered over it.

Perhaps he wanted Vader to search the room on his own. Somewhat awkwardly, he navigated two of the display cases and went to the wall of books at his left. He didn't recognize the lettering on the spines. Moving to the next shelf, he found some titles in Aurebesh, though he still didn't recognize the words.

Not certain what Palpatine expected from him, he fell back into his role as apprentice and asked, "Master, what do you want me to see?"

"Can't you guess?" Palpatine smiled wanly. "I suppose I shouldn't be surprised. You are a man of deeds, Lord Vader, not words. Although that is not _entirely_ your fault." He moved from the display case and stood beside him. "The Jedi were careful of what they allowed in their records, and more so what they allowed their students to read."

"These are all Sith teachings, Master?"

"Most are written by the Sith, but some are even older; copies of documents from the very early masters and philosophers of the Dark Side of the Force. The original writings for those are gone now, but saved here by diligent students who copied them down before their destruction. This room contains all the Sith Masters have preserved of our history and our doctrine. I have personally read everything at least once."

" _Everything_?"

"It isn't as impossible as it looks, especially for an eager learner. You will accomplish the same in time."

Vader's breath hitched slightly as he snapped his head back to Palpatine. The mask prevented him from betraying his expression, but no doubt his shock echoed briefly in the Force, especially given their proximity. "All of them?" he said.

"Of course, Lord Vader. You are the apprentice. The _only_ Sith apprentice. And the role of the apprentice is to learn. Because the way of the Sith requires only two of us, the entirety of the knowledge of the Sith and the Dark Side falls upon us to study and retain. After all, what if some of these artifacts should be lost? We must be not only the custodians of this knowledge but also its experts. What these books contain is too valuable to store in droids, or even allow inquisitors to see in certain circumstances. The knowledge here is the burden of you and I alone."

"I don't recognize most of what I see." Vader reached for a particularly old tome. When Palpatine didn't stay his hand, he drew it from the shelf. Its vellum pages has been inscribed with thin, spidery symbols.

"You will in time, when you learn the languages of the Sith."

Vader started. _Languages_. _Plural_.

"Yes." Palpatine sensed his concern. He smiled. "The Sith are a very long-lived order and over time we separated ourselves from the galaxy with our own native tongue, and over time various dialects and branches. Do not fear, Lord Vader. All of the tools you will need to access our knowledge are here."

"But perhaps I should start with the holocrons, before these obscure books…"

"Why, apprentice, obviously most of the holocrons are in the Sith tongues as well. They will be just as inaccessible to you."

Palpatine waved him over to one of the displays and opened it with a push on the left side of the casing. He extracted the holocron and activated it. The shaky image of the author greeted them in a rough but eloquent speech. " _Dzworokka yun; nyâshqûwai, nwiqûwai. Wotok tsawakmidwanottoi, yuntok hyarutmidwanottoi._ "

" _Always two, there are_ ," Palpatine said in Basic, his voice oddly low and reverent. " _No more, no less; a master, and an apprentice._ "

 _That_ Vader recognized. "Who is the figure, Master?" he asked.

"Darth Bane. You will learn more about him. He contributed much to our way of life, as well as our duty to bring Sith supremacy to the galaxy."

"I will learn all of the Sith masters?"

"Of course."

"How long will that take?"

Palpatine smiled patiently and put away the holocron. "Do not worry, Lord Vader; you will have the rest of your life to absorb it all."

~.~.~

Vader returned to his ship and wished it wasn't a shuttle. He wanted to hide in his hyperbaric chamber. With him were several digital copies to read through, as well as a holocron from some ancient Sith Lord to consult. Palpatine wanted to start conversing with him in Sith in half a standard month. He wasn't going to be able to work on his TIE hardly at all once back on Mustafar. Gingerly, he looked at the Sith Grammar, and balked when he realized it was an agglutinative language, unlike Huttese or Basic.

As a padawan in the Jedi temple, he'd never been very good at studying or visiting the library. The Jedi had been bookish philosophers. Strange that the carnal Sith were, in the end, no different.

Now he would have to endure the same process all over again.

(Tbc?! For Vader, at least, yes.)


	2. Without End

As a boy on Tatooine, Anakin Skywalker had been required to speak not only Basic but also the dominant local language, Huttese, as the Hutt clans operated on Tatooine and essentially owned the planet amongst other large sections of the Outer Rim. Because of Anakin's unfortunate early life, Darth Vader was fluent in both languages, and could switch back and forth easily, though now as a servant of the Empire he had no need to speak the language of the Hutts. It was considered a criminal and degenerate tongue and "worse than primitive."

But since he had developed an ease for absorbing languages, he found Sith digestible and could translate it somewhat easily in his mind. Speaking it presented the problem, as the language structure contrasted a lot from what he was used to. He was, after all, just the product of that childhood life on Tatooine. Sidious commanded him constantly to forget his past, but the language center of his brain and the muscle memory of his tongue couldn't be commanded to forget. Sith was a very antiquated language.

Still, the prospect of hissing it around the Core-bred officers and watching their faces blanch sounded entertaining. Unfortunately, the Emperor had already told him he couldn't do it, after he'd intimated a desire to do exactly that. Ancient Sith was a proud and lofty language; more importantly, it was a hidden one. Palpatine called it a language of secrets.

He was due to meet the Emperor at 1300 and as always he left early. (Once, not long after the formation of the Empire and his apprenticeship, he'd arrived a minute late and gotten dressed down for it. Receiving a scolding like a youth had made him burn with enough frustration and rage his respirator had almost been overridden in its attempt to keep up with his breaths. Still he'd tried to defend himself, saying that though he'd left on time circumstances had delayed him. The Emperor then taught him what he'd lived by ever since-early was on time, and on time was late. He'd never been late for anything again and he refused to tolerate it from others, either.)

As usual, he waited outside the door of the throne room, glaring at the surrounding walls of the Palace, and at the Royal Guard stationed on either side of the larger doors. When he was allowed inside the throne room he walked in quickly, taking only a few strides to reach the base of the stairs, where he knelt.

" _What thy wish to bid, master_?" he said quickly in Sith.

Palpatine made a vague noise in his throat, but didn't correct him. " _Rise, Lord Vader_."

Vader stood. He felt like a Padawan, only nine years old again. It was disgusting.

" _What of the agitators on Rodia?"_ the Emperor asked. He spoke fluently and speedily, really stacking all the words together, and Vader struggled to keep up.

" _The agitators mainly are indisposed, in the public."_

" _Good. Good. There will be others."_

" _Yes, Master."_

Palpatine switched back to Basic. "Follow me, my friend." He stood up and walked down the steps, slowly, using his cane. To the uninitiated, he truly looked like a feeble old man.

Vader followed the Emperor as he went through a side exit out of the throne room. As the interior Guard wasn't ordered to stay behind, both followed behind Vader.

They went to the secret library again. This time the Royal Guard came as well, which for a moment alarmed Lord Vader. They alone knew of the Emperor's hidden abilities, but surely that didn't mean they deserved to stand amongst the priceless antiquities of the Sith Order.

" _Is there a problem, Lord Vader_?" the Emperor asked, switching back to Sith again.

" _No, Master_."

" _I see you staring at the Guard. You seem troubled_."

" _Why needed here of them_? _With these secrets_? _They are not of worth_."

" _They already know our most important secret, Lord Vader. I have myself_ -" here Vader couldn't recognize what words the Emperor used - " _of them and their loyalties. Besides, if they treat these secrets in an unworthy manner, you may dispose of them_."

Then, in Basic again, he said, "I've told you about Darth Plagueis once before."

That had been a lifetime ago; as Anakin Skywalker and Chancellor Palpatine sat in a theatre box, watching...something. Not really watching. Palpatine had told him the tragedy of Darth Plagueis the Wise; the Sith Master who'd discovered the secret to manipulating the midichlorians that communicated with the Force; how he'd learned to create life. It was a secret anyone willing to submit to the Sith teachings could learn.

\- or so Palpatine had implied at the time. Only after frustrated, deluded, desperate Anakin Skywalker had given himself to the Chancellor's service - to Darth Sidious - did he learn that Plagueis' secrets had died with him. Everything else had happened so fast after that shattering revelation: his old master and wife confronting him, with no time to subdue her and make her understand what he'd to do to save her. She'd been so _defiant_ -

"Lord Vader," Palpatine said.

"Yes, Master?" Vader answered immediately. Like breaching water, he broke through the rush of memories. They'd come like a sudden tidal wave, bowling him over, but he was back now.

"Embrace the Dark Side, Lord Vader," was all Palpatine said. Then he indicated Vader to follow him to a holocron, already taken from its protective case. Palpatine activated the holocron, and the image of an inhumanly tall, hooded figure wearing a transpirator materialized above the device. Because of the hood and breathing apparatus, his species was hard to determine, but he could have been Muun.

In Sith, the hologram said, " _These are the recordings of Master Plagueis, the former apprentice of Master Tenebrous, the present teacher of Lord Sidious_."

Vader's attention left the hologram, directed again to Palpatine.

"Are you surprised?" the Emperor said. "I was once an apprentice as you are now, of course. Darth Plagueis taught me from almost everything in this room-everything except what I compiled myself. And his master did the same for him."

"But you -"

"Repeat what he just said, Lord Vader. In Sith and Basic."

Still reeling, Vader did, haltingly at first. He rushed through the exercise quickly; practicing Sith wasn't his concern. After finishing the pointless exercise he said, "Master, you told me the apprentice of Darth Plagueis _killed_ him."

"Yes, Lord Vader. That is true." Palpatine smiled faintly, as if at a faraway memory.

"It's true that you told me, or true that you killed him?"

"Both," the Emperor said.

"Why?"

Palpatine had saved all of his master's recordings, yet hated him enough to kill him?

The Emperor regarded Vader with a slight tilt of the head, as if considering his apprentice's outburst. Whatever he decided, he kept it to himself. "Why did I kill my master? Don't you know, Lord Vader?"

Obviously not, Vader wanted to answer, but held back. Palpatine was waiting for him say something, however. Unsure, Vader finally offered, "There's the Rule of Two…which would mean you'd taken an apprentice of your own and needed to eliminate the old master to keep the rule in place. But having an apprentice as an apprentice would have violated the Rule of Two already."

"It was a simpler matter than that, Lord Vader," Palpatine said. "An apprentice is loyal until he isn't. It is not natural for the Sith to remain students forever. We must reach maturity. Plagueis had grown complacent. It was the right time."

Vader looked down at the glitched, slightly wobbly hologram of the cloaked figure. It looked very much like his master, despite the vaguely alien outline, but he recognized how the student had adopted the visible presence of his teacher. And as Palpatine had said before, Plagueis had been wise-so wise he'd unlocked secrets of the Force until then unheard of. To kill him and lose those secrets made no sense.

"What are you saying?" Vader managed finally.

"Don't act so naive, Lord Vader. The student must, in time, surpass the teacher. And if the teacher is surpassed, the teacher is longer needed. I know you've thought about it already. That is also natural. In fact, I'd be disappointed if you hadn't. "

Vader didn't deny the accusation, though he couldn't bring himself to confess his own brief plans for betrayal. While on Mustafar, he'd promised _her_ that he'd overthrow Sidious. It had been a time of weakness. He'd only just left the Jedi, and never so at the mercy of the Dark Side and its passions. He would have given his wife anything and done anything. Not even Sidious had been more important than her. But she'd rejected him. (And she'd been unable to...withstand his anger, crumpling; he'd have sworn he barely hurt her.) In the end, it was Sidious who'd come to his rescue, and willed him back to life.

"But our relationship is different, Master," Vader said finally. Though it was always wise to keep one's thoughts and feelings guarded, he couldn't contain the memory, of his master kneeling at his side, touching his raw brow; literally commanding him to live. In that moment, Palpatine had been like a god. It all bled out into the Force, where Palpatine had to feel it; remember it.

The Emperor looked down, face lost in his cowl. The faintest sigh escaped from beneath the low brim of his hood. "Perhaps," he said. "Perhaps."

[TBC]

 _So, uh, I promise the next chapter will be funnier._


End file.
